


Food for Thought

by rainsonata



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:16:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28816956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsonata/pseuds/rainsonata
Summary: They didn’t share many things in common, but it became a routine for Elsword to visit him.  The Rune Slayer brought a heavy subject that would affect Add more than he would like to admit.
Relationships: Elsword/Edward "Add" Grenore, Mastermind/Rune Slayer





	Food for Thought

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr and writing collab with @zeloree.

His footsteps echoed when he marched to a familiar door worn with age. It was a metal door decorated with wires and machinery, but it was all for show. With many visitors dropping by, its occupant had given up on security when deciding it wasn’t worth the effort. Twisting the doorknob, Elsword barged into the lab to announce his presence. 

“Hey, Add!” The Rune Slayer greeted the scientist with a smile and a wave. 

“Brat.” the scientist gave the boy a sign of acknowledgement rather than a proper response.

He didn’t think the redhead would make his invasion a common appearance, but by the fifth ‘visit’, Add had started to expect his presence instead of screeching and hissing at the brat’s interruption. Not that it was better, since it meant welcoming him into his relaxing lab. Persistence was always something the scientist hated from Elsword, and now he caved into it.

“I have a name you know,” Elsword huffed. “Guess what? I brought you food!” 

He shoved a platter of sandwiches at Add before the Mastermind could quip back. The lettuce stuck out with water dripping onto the plate, making the toasted bread soggy. When Add took a bite, he was surprised to see the redhead remembered to add mustard this time. Maybe the brat was useful for something after all. 

“How long are you going to keep up with this?” Add asked.

“When you remember to feed yourself,” Elsword made himself comfortable in a spinning chair, ignoring Add’s frown of spreading himself over the scientist’s workspace.

“Who are you, my mother?” Add scoffed, “You’re starting to sound like the elf.” 

“Guess that’s saying something then, huh?” He huffed, his face souring from Add’s unappreciative reply. “And I’ll have you know that unlike Rena, I appreciate the taste of delicious meat!” He scorned, “Our ideologies on determining what’s edible or not makes me completely different than her!”

If it was one thing Elsword was serious about, it was anything involving his stomach. The very fact that they had yet another lecture relating to food proved it. Add leaned back, tuning out a passionate speech on how meat changed everything in sandwiches, and that the mixture of vegetables and meat were the ultimate combination.

“Right, I get it,” he quickly surrendered, as if he was putting a fight over the subject. “Want some hot chocolate?”

Elsword went starry-eyed at getting a free drink.

A chuckle escaped from Add’s lips, cheeks dusted pink when he caught Elsword smiling at the obnoxious sound. That was the strange thing about the Rune Slayer. He waited for the brat to make comments about how different he acted - the way he talked, his obsession with nasods, or how he conserved chocolate like bars of gold, but Elsword never questioned it. 

He wondered if the younger teen held hidden motives. What kind of idiot recruited a stranger after witnessing ambush attempts on one of their teammates on more than one occasion? All it took was a heroic act to convince Elsword and all was good? Add scoffed, the brat must be very forgiving or very stupid. 

“You’re early today,” Add poured the cocoa powder into two mugs. A purple kettle stationed in the corner of the lab was boiling water. He forced himself to ignore the stares Elsword was giving him, knowing what the redhead was thinking. 

“I finished training early with Elesis today.” Elsword paused, “Are those cat ears?”

“It’s a gift,” he grew defensive. It was a gift to himself, so that counted, right? 

“Cute,” Elsword grinned. 

“You always train with her.” It was hard for him to wrap his mind around the concept of having a sibling. “Why is that?”

Elsword blinked with confusion. “Because she’s the best sister in the whole wide world?” Shocked at Add’s bewilderment to spar with his sibling, “You see…”

He regretted asking that question. The next topic the boy liked to talk about was his caring, loving, …energetic sibling. At least Add could share opinions over food. Elsword’s speeches about Elesis were worse because he portrayed the swordswoman as something of a goddess.

“She’s always calm, she was only thirteen or something when she helped my dad out with war stuff!“

Admittedly, her achievements were rather impressive. Physically adept and a seemingly brilliant tactician at a young age, managing to secure victory after victory. Assuming Elsword hadn’t blown half of her stories out of proportion, Add would’ve considered her someone that had to be eliminated as soon as possible.

She sounded dangerous… almost too dangerous for him to really interact. There was no telling if she saw through Add’s tiny scheme with Eve, and though the red siblings were meatheads, Add was sure she’d had a much larger suspicion toward him.   
  
Luckily, the stories were exaggerated. She was less of a threat than how Elsword made her to be.

Though, he was curious on why the boy placed herself on a high pedestal. Why do that? Wouldn’t it be better to downplay her actions and brag about the missions he completed successfully?Less people would look down on him if he shined himself than glass trapping the trophy.

“And of course, your father didn’t receive any credits for what she did?” Add blurted out, “Sure, your sister sounds… elegant, but your father was the one that helped make her. He should be praised too.”

Elsword blinked at the mention of his father. Not many people asked about him because it wasn’t uncommon for children to lose parents to war and natural disasters caused by the El. People saw him as the knight to serve people, rarely as a child who still had to stand on his tiptoes to reach the highest shelves in the kitchen. Why was Add the first one to notice? 

He shrugged, “She was noticed as a prodigy.”

“Because that’s what people love, a miracle child to make up for adults’ incompetence.” Add said with bitterness. 

“They remember her because she was young,” Elsword stressed. “That was the third time I saw his face. He may have a name in the army, but he was a poor father.” 

The nights he spent in a house too big for one child still haunted him when he was left to his own thoughts. As he grew old enough to start a journey with friends, he was no longer alone, but the dreaded thought that their journey would one day end left him feeling cold again. There were only so many places to visit before they ran out of places to travel to. He wondered if Add would leave him like his father did when he saw no reason to stick around.

“My father was not a kind man either,” Add said with an unreadable expression. “He was an ass, but maybe he was trying to save us.”

Elsword was shocked to hear those words. It was the first time he heard Add mention his family at all. Maybe that was the appeal in talking to the scientist. His past was a mystery and it was hard to read his intentions with his sarcastic comments and the gleam in his eyes as if he was on to an inside joke only he understood. 

Add returned with two mugs of hot chocolate and handed one to him. He took a sip of hot chocolate and flinched at his bad decision to drink it too early.

“I’ll give you an example, since the strawberry shortcake probably won’t understand,” Add panted out, pushing his cat mug away in reaction to having his tongue burned. “Take this… hot chocolate. It’s sweet, full of sugar, but also murky. And hot. Very… very hot.” 

He wiped his eyes, tears unfortunately starting to form around them as a result of his roasted tastebuds. “It hurts… but. It’s sweet. And it’s probably worth dying for to stick your tongue in.”

“Are you sure you’re talking about your old man, or about your tongue?” Elsword deadpanned. “Strawberry shortcake? Really?” He was not that short, thank you very much! 

“He spent years carving my mind into what he thought was best for me,” he stuck out his burned tongue. “Both my parents were nasod researchers, so it was natural for them to expect the same for me. You see these eyes? That’s his work. I was his legacy.”

“Was,” Elsword recognized the past tense and understood. Like many of them in the group, Add was an orphan too. 

The scientist smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. It was forced and controlled, like his voice, “All children are legacies of their parents. Whether you like it or not, we’re shaped by them. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have lasted this long. My mother played a part of why I’m here.” 

Elsword couldn’t pretend to understand what Add meant by any of that. He wasn’t a genius like Add or a nasod with a storage of information like Eve. He wanted to know what Add was saying because he wanted to be a good friend, but he also wanted to understand the scientist. Add was the last of them to be open about his past. He didn’t want to mess this up and scare him away. 

“You said he wasn’t a nice man,” Elsword looked down at his hot chocolate and blowed on it before taking a small sip.

Add looked away, “He wasn’t a forgiving teacher as Mother was. Sometimes, he destroyed my work because he expected more.” 

The Rune slayer’s eyes widened. “Wha-?!” Destroying people’s work? Was that really something that a mentor would do? He understood his sister might’ve been more lax with him, but he’d never imagine any good tutor would destroy something they worked so hard on. It was like wasting cake after having it was baked and decorated.

“What kind of cake gets thrown on the floor just because they expected something more chocolate-y?!” Elsword gasped.

“…What?”

“He wasn’t a good baker! I mean- good mentor! He shouldn’t trash your stuff!” As Elsword slammed his fist on the desk, Add nervously recoiled.

“In other words…” The Mastermind meekly said, fidgeting at his clothes and leering over at the boy. “You think he’s an awful person…?”

“More than awful!”

Well, he couldn’t deny his father didn’t treat him as nicely, but…

“I mean, he was harsh, but he thought I could do better,” Add’s face grew warm when he noticed how livid the Rune Slayer was. This wasn’t Elsword problem, why did it bother him so much? “He might have said cruel things, but I became a better inventor because of him.” 

“That’s not how you teach someone how to be better,” Elsword crossed his arms. “That’s not what family is.”

“Is family throwing your children into a war you started?”

Elsword sighed when he scooted closer to reach his hand over to ruffle the scientist’s hair. His insides churned when Add flinched at the sudden human contact and pulled away with an apologetic look. He was no expert on parenting, especially him of all people being an orphan and all, but that could not be a good sign. The way Add took the effort to cover most of his body left much to be suspicious. What was under there? Nasod limbs like Raven? Strange markings like Ain? Scars and bruises? 

The knight grew uncomfortable on the last thought. Add didn’t mention physical abuse, but he couldn’t help but wonder what else the other was hiding. There had to be more to the story for Add to show aggression when coming into contact with chains or the mention of slaves (Thanks to Lu, who learned the hard way when Add verbally lashed out at her.). 

“You’re judging me,” Add said. “You’re thinking it’s the bastard’s fault for making me like this.”

“You said it yourself,” Elsword pointed out. “Our parents shape us. Your father could have killed you for the sake of protecting the family legacy.”

“No he won’t,” Add said with pride. “I was useful for him in one thing: becoming a human weapon.”

A chill shot up Elsword’s spine.

“You’re more than that,” he tried to keep himself calm. What kind of monster was this man to view his child as nothing more than a weapon? This was the kind of story he expected hundreds of years ago from the history books Aisha loved to read. 

“More than that…?” he cocked his head at the redhead, a fluttering astonishment appearing in Add’s magenta eyes. His father’s eyes.

Now he seemed a bit more interested in talking. Elsword knew that look. Though the boy knew he had his moments where he rambled on things Add might not have been interested in, Add had those times too. Maybe a lot more than him. Considering the topic they’ve landed themselves in however, he wasn’t sure how Add would lecture Elsword on this.

“You believe I’m worth more than that… truly a fascinating idea to think.” before Elsword could try and change discussion, Add slammed down his mug, startling and silencing him. The scientist narrowed his eyes, his smile forming an expression of bemusement.

“Kek. Do you think a single human is worth that much, Elbrat?” The Mastermind traced his finger on the rim of his mug. “Even if I was the last heir of this family, humans are all the same anyways. I wasn’t someone that could prevent a whole race of humans from being extinct, because I was not the last one. I didn’t need to survive for the whole species to continue living. Statistically speaking,” he closed his eyes. “I’m not special. I don’t have any rare abilities. I was born physically average. My knowledge and high understanding comes from strict teaching, who I’m sure many other people have gone through. I was not the first, nor was I the last.”

“In addition, I was highly isolated. I only knew Mother and Father. They were not only family, but friends. People I live in, and people that I must adapt to. If I won’t adapt, how could he value my existence as something more than being parasitic?”

Positioning his head to face downwards, he hummed. “Finally, my parents could bear another child. Had I died, I would easily have been replaced.” And his father could’ve easily framed it as the death being accidental.  
  
“… To conclude, I had no real worth at the very start.” He grinned, shrugging with his arms and staring at the boy with tired eyes. “That’s-”

“That’s stupid,” Elsword frowned. “Maybe that’s how it worked when you lived with them, but you’re important to me.”

He flustered when he realized what he had just said. It sounded better in his head, was that too much? But it was true, he didn’t want anyone to replace Add. It was a selfish thought because he already had his sister and his friends, but having one friend less gave him more anxiety than he thought was reasonable. 

“So what if you’re only a small part of all humans,” Elsword gritted his teeth. He wanted to go back in time and punch the man that made his friend like this. His rage peered through when fire sparked out from his fingertips and flared up. “If there weren’t little people like us, then what will become of humanity? I don’t want you to go.” 

“You’re really strange, red bean.” Add said, although his eyes betrayed him and looked like they were going to water. 

Despite pushing the brat away more than once, he still came back. All that effort to talk to someone like him, who lacked the charisma Elsword had to draw people in, or Raven’s swordsman skill. They shared nothing in common, but the redhead still talked to him. Was this what having a friend was like? 

Friends. It was something that bothered him when he was younger and he watched the village children play from a distance, but couldn’t join them because of his circumstances. He thought he didn’t need it when was an adult, but now he craved it. That wasn’t fair.

“I’m strange? You’re in no position to say that, ya know,” the boy playfully chuckled. “And I’m not small bean, damn it.”  
  
“Kek. Right. Sure.” Breathing in a sigh, Add lifted his mug, nipping for the taste of slightly cooled hot chocolate with his burned tongue.

“I mean, you have flying plates and you talk to your box-”

“Apocalypse is a weapon, not a box.” Add was offended. 

“It tried to bite me the other day,” Elsword complained. It went after him when he found it lying in another box. The cat cube hissed at him and snarled when he tried to move it from its resting spot. 

Add snorted, “You were probably bothering it.”

When Add stretched his legs, he was surprised to discover how stiff they were. How long were they talking for him to feel like this? If Elsword wouldn’t let him talk about himself like that, then what did the redhead want? 

“Do you hate your father?” Add asked. 

“It’s not hate,” Elsword said. “It’s disappointment, I think. He always wrote letters, but Elesis missed him and I didn’t like him for making her cry when he left too early for any of us to catch him.”

“For the war, right?” Add rubbed his chin, “What if he didn’t leave? Would you be happier? Wouldn’t the war reach to your cute little village if he didn’t help them?” 

Truthfully, that thought never occurred to him until Add mentioned it. He knew that as a soldier, his father had to excuse his duties as a parent in order to protect Velder, but he wished he’d at least spend a vacation every once in awhile to visit him. To make him and his sibling feel a little more important than some stupid battle.

“Ah… maybe he was trying to defend Velder for your own benefit. I don’t really know how the war really went, but,” he took a large gulp of his drink. “A knight has to be paid, no? He might’ve also been working to prevent you cupcakes from starving yourselves.”   
  
“Well…”

“And all of us eventually go through a time where we have very little to depend on, if at all. Maybe he wanted to strengthen you by getting used to it.” He added on.

“And look how that turned out.” Elsword motioned his arms towards Add like he was a finished painting. “Clearly something to be admired.” he scoffed sarcastically.  
  
Add’s leer deepened at that, but a smile appeared on his cheeks. “Kek. Indeed. I’m a beautiful, intelligent man.” The scientist stated, gesturing at himself pridefully. “Look at my face. It’s truly a masterpiece. Unlike a certain poptart.”

“Hey, taste over aesthetics. I’ll have you know I’m incredibly delicious, unlike bitter coffee.”

Add lost his composure and bursted out laughing, hugging his stomach and clinging to his seat to duck his head under his arms. What an interesting person to talk to, he covered his mouth, but kept cackling like a madman. He laughed when he saw Elsword’s confusion, a rare smile spread across his features. 

“I’ll let you know that black coffee is an acquired taste,” he said with happiness. 

“Just like you,” Elsword mumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing,” the redhead said innocently. “You said you didn’t have worth, but why does your dad bother with you then?”

For once, Add had nothing to answer back. Why _did_ Father bother with him? The way Elsword said it made the contradiction more apparent and it bothered him. He couldn’t be both: having no worth, but claim Father cared. Or maybe Asker pitied him and that’s why he pressured him? Were these facts or assumptions he latched onto in hopes that maybe he was needed by someone?

“It’s okay if you don’t know,” Elsword said. “I don’t know why my dad did what he had to do either. I guess it’s hard to know when our dads are dead.” 

Staring at the scientist, the Rune Slayer slowly approached him with a gloved hand, fingers trailing to rub Add’s head in a messy manner. Add froze when he felt Elsword’s fingers ran through his locks, surprised how light his touches were, careful not to tangle his hair. There was hesitancy in letting himself be touched, but he made a sound of agreement for the sake of a response. 

“Are we going to have a soul searching conversation every time you break in?”

“Only when you stop naming me after pastries,” Elsword joked. 

“An expensive price,” the Mastermind snarked. Elsword didn’t need Add to shake his head in disagreement, already rolling with the conclusion that the scientist would rather keep the nicknames. He gulped down the rest of his free drink, setting it down and pushing it to Mastermind to later clean.

“I’m done now.” Elsword concluded with a peaceful exhale. “Thanks for the hot chocolate. Hope you enjoyed the sandwiches.”

He took another gulp of his drink. Was that really all? Had time passed by so quickly while they were interacting? It felt so short, yet Add had a feeling something at least an hour or so had already passed.

“Right. Get the hell out of my lab, you brat.”

Oddly enough, there was a feeling of dread on Elsword’s announced departure. It was hard to concentrate when he heard the boy’s shoes clanking on his floors, with each step becoming softer.

“Wait.” Add uttered and the steps stopped. Add froze, realizing Elsword had heard his voice loud and clear.

“What?”

Add stared down at his screen in panic. He couldn’t say that he just wanted him to stop the noisy taps on the floor, could he?

“Hm. You see, I actually…” He must look for an excuse. His eyes shift over from the empty mugs in search for something. “I actually need… something.” he spotted an object that was near his lab. “Need… an object. For science.”

“So like… you want me to get it with you?” Elsword questioned.

Add opened his mouth, but the redhead already answer for him. “Yeah, sure! We can do it soon. Maybe in a few days. How about the next lab visit? You’re always in here anyways.”

Elsword ran back to him, arms wrapping themselves to hug Add from behind, tiptoeing to place his chin on Add’s soft hair.

“Awww!~ You care!” the redhead laughed.

Add wondered if he could take back those words, but it was too late.

“I-… Don’t… don’t misunderstand.” he closed his eyes and pulled his head down. “I was just interested in seeing how you fight.”

That was a lie even Elsword could see through, because the boy cackled harder, entertained by Add’s denial. “Yeah, yeah, sure! Thanks for the date!”

“Wait- Date? Elbrat-” he moved to correct the boy, but Elsword was already running back out.

He was definitely regretting it now.


End file.
